British Gas Partners With Strata And Daikin To Launch Eco-Tech Low Bill Homes
The title of this post, is the same as that of this press release from Centrica.
This is the sub-heading.
British Gas is set to supercharge sustainable living across the UK with the launch of Low Carbon Homes – a ground-breaking pilot in partnership with Strata and heat pump manufacturer, Daikin.
These are the first four paragraphs, which fill out a bit of detail.
In anticipation of The Future Homes Standard, customers will move into new build homes which have been fitted with a full range of the latest low-carbon technology at no extra cost to the housebuilder or owner. The homes will be equipped with a 6-8 kWh Daikin air source heat pump, 4 kWh solar panels, 5 kWh battery storage, Hive electric vehicle charger and thermostat. These items will be integrated into Hive’s award-winning app, providing customers with one-stop visibility and control of their energy usage.
The first trial phase will launch at a Strata’s “Breathe” development site in Kiveton, Rotherham. As a thank you for participating in the pilot, British Gas is giving homeowners access to a fixed rate tailored British Gas tariff. Participants in the trial will also have access to a dedicated British Gas energy manager to help them optimise the technology and keep bills as low as possible, while still meeting their desired comfort levels.
Each home will be fitted with a Hive hub, which connects to the WIFI network and acts as the home’s operating system, integrating all the sustainable technology. The customers energy and heat schedules and budget will be optimised by the Hive Hub for further savings.
When the customer connects to Hive’s app they will be able to control and maximise efficiency by setting schedules and spending budgets and allowing the Hub to help them reduce their bills.
Note.
- As a Control Engineer, this to me is a good start.
- I suspect that a 6-8 kWh Daikin air source heat pump, 4 kWh solar panels and 5 kWh battery storage will keep the average house warm.
- I would expect that the three companies have optimised the ratios between the sizes of the components to give the best performance.
It is amazing to think that it was in the early seventies, that in the two sections, where I worked at ICI, engineers had just started controlling and optimising flows, pressures and temperatures in complex chemical plants.
If you’d asked any of us, when our houses heating systems would be as fully controlled, we’d have given twenty years at most.
What kept the world so long?
I have a few thoughts.
Could The Housing Have Gas For Cooking??
Yes! Centrica owns a big share with Hyundai, Kia and others of a start-up company called HiiROC.
- This is the HiiROC web site.
- HiiROC can take any hydocarbon gas and split it into green hydrogen and carbon black.
- Green hydrogen is obviously useful and the carbon black can be used for making tyres for vehicles, anodes for lithium-ion batteries and in agriculture for soil improvement.
- Waste off-gas from a chemical plant can be split into green hydrogen and carbon black.
- Biomethane from a sewage plant can be split into hydrogen and carbon black. Could a sewage plant on an estate be used to create biomethane for cooking and feeding to the HiiROC plant? Yes!
- Could green hydrogen produced on the estate be used to drive vehicles like cars, vans and ride-on-mowers. Yes! If the manufacturer of the vehicle allows it!
- How convenient would it be to have Hydrogen-at-Home?
How Much Does A British Gas Hive Save On My Energy Bill?
I asked Google and I got this answer from Home Hive.
£119. A smaller carbon footprint and a smaller bill – our award-winning smart thermostat could cut your energy bills by up to £170 a year. Join Hive Plus to boost your thermostat’s savings – and get exclusive access to £60 bill credit with any fixed British Gas dual fuel tariff.
At present, I have no intention of changing my energy supplier, but come the summer or if my health or energy circumstances change, I might see what is available.
Will British Gas Develop A Hive For a Smaller Dwelling?
I suspect in ten years, if I’m still of this world, I shall be living in the following circumstances.
- Alone.
- In a two bedroom house, cottage or flat.
- Some form of probably electric central heating or perhaps even hydrogen.
- No car.
- A short walk to the bus stop and/or train station.
- Communal gardens to sit in.
- An Ocado style delivery for food, groceries and other essentials.
- A local gluten-free cafe.
- Full Wi-Fi
Perhaps, British Gas and others will develop a community for people like me?
The Anonymous Widower 
They’re following Octopus, who are offering no electricity bills for 10 years – or to be more precise, they give a (generous) free allowance, and you only pay if you use more electricity than that. https://octopus.energy/blog/100k-zero-bills-homes-by-2030/ I’m not sure how they’ll make money, but it’s great marketing – I mean, who wouldn’t want free electric for 10 years?
Comment by Peter Robins | December 13, 2024 |
I seem to have a figure of around twenty percent of electricity in my brain, that could be saved on a chemical plant by balancing it all up.
So I wouldn’t be surprised to see money saved on electricity.
I can also see Centrica using HiiROC-generated hydrogen on the estates,
Only the amount needed would be generated and used for cookers and perhaps even running hydrogen-powered vehicles and ride-on mowers.
Remember Centrica own a good bite of HiiROC.
If hydrogen is available, then those nice Koreans, as opposed to the nasty ones in the North, might offer you a discount on a hydrogen-powered Hyundai or Kia.
I do like the concept of filling up your local runabout from a local hydrogen source.
Comment by AnonW | December 13, 2024 |
See https://www.carbonbrief.org/the-carbon-brief-interview-octopus-energys-greg-jackson/ for Octopus’s boss on hydrogen in the home. I too have become very sceptical about H – it’s also far too expensive for widespread use.
Comment by Peter Robins | December 13, 2024 |
HiiROC have stated that their process uses a fifth of the electricity of electrolysis.
From my memories of the ICI/BASF process to produce acetylene, that could be right.
Comment by AnonW | December 14, 2024 |
It’s not just the cost of producing H. If you’ve an hour or so to spare, I’d recommend Michael Liebreich’s presentation at Imperial College’s Energy Futures Lab earlier in the year https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0Q9cuF8zKg There’s also a contribution from a lady who was part of the Ellesmere Port trial of H in the home.
HiiROC’s process suffers from the same problem as pyrolysis: it needs methane/natural gas, and in Europe only Norway (well, all right, Russia too) has gas to spare. Iberdrola is now expanding its existing solar/battery/hydrolysis plant in Puertollano for Fertiberia. New ways of producing H may well be a good idea for such existing processes like ammonia/fertiliser, which already use H, and need a way of doing so without emissions. But for other uses, well, let’s say it falls well short.
Comment by Peter Robins | December 14, 2024 |
I;d be interested to know how much methane you can produce from the average housing estate.
From my ICI experience, I do suspect that HiiROC have improved the process and I suspect that they’ve come up with a clever catalyst.
It also appears that Centrica are getting serious about stealing biomethane from sewage works.
https://anonw.com/2023/07/26/centrica-signs-uk-biomethane-agreement-with-yorkshire-water-and-sgn-commercial-services/
Comment by AnonW | December 14, 2024
is The Future Homes Standard equivalent to Passivhaus standard?
Comment by chilterntrev | December 15, 2024 |
No, the full Passivhaus spec is much stricter. The FHS hasn’t been finalised yet, but one of the criticisms of the last government’s proposal was that it wasn’t strict enough: some new houses are currently being built to a higher standard (I assume this includes the ones mentioned here). I’m not sure what the current government’s plan is. They’re talking of ‘affordable’ housing, but does this mean affordable to buy, or affordable to run? If you require new builds to have higher-quality insulation and windows, along with solar and batteries, you increase the cost to buy, but dramatically decrease the cost to run.
Comment by Peter Robins | December 15, 2024 |